Tag Archives: Florence

This photo was taken on a random side street while in Florence. The wife and I decided to take the long way around the city so we could get a feel for the touristy spots as well as the “normal”/residential areas. If you are ever in Italy, Florence is a must. Easy to navigate and a great walking city.

This is an interesting photo for me. When I originally took the shot, I was focused on the bike as I was taking pictures of things that reminded me of the city…sort of photographic souvenirs. But after I uploaded the photo and saw it on my computer screen, I was really drawn to the door. I love the wood grain, colors and textures of the door. Look at the way the light is hitting the door and the stone below the door. I’m digging that. In hindsight, I wish I had focused more on the door instead of the bike…oh well 🙂

While on our honeymoon, instead of collecting souvenirs I decided to take one photograph in each place that represented something unique about that area. This is actually really fun and it makes you really look and think about what catches your eye about the areas you are visiting. I’ll be posting more if these “souvenir” shots from the various cities we stopped at while on the cruise.

I’m not sure what the significance is but in Florence, Italy (around the Ponte Vecchio) there are hundreds of locks attached to chains, hooks, fences and pretty much anything you could get your hands on. Seeing public spaces that have been vandalized usually gets me all fired up but this was actually quite charming. I’m going to do some digging to see if I can figure out exactly why people are placing locks in this area…I’ll update the post if I even find anything. Please leave a comment if you know why people are doing this in Florence.

**Update**

Apparently, these are called “love locks”. The following is from Wikipedia:

“Love padlocks are a custom by which sweethearts affix padlocks to a fence or similar public fixture to symbolise their love, beginning in the 1980s, in the centre of the southern Hungarian city of Pécs.”

“In Florence, Italy, love padlocks have been affixed to the railing around and near the statue of Benvenuto Cellini located at the centre of the Ponte Vecchio.”